24. Jude
JUDE
I didn’t sleep all night. I couldn’t. Not when the sweetest boy I knew was locked up in jail for something he didn’t do.
And there was no doubt in my mind that Soren was innocent.
A boy who had no idea how to use a dishwasher to save his life didn’t suddenly become a drug dealer, which meant someone had framed him, but we had no idea who.
After the incident, Phoenix had called it a night at the club, staff staying behind while guests were asked to leave, but no one knew anything.
Vale was too close to the investigation, and Phoenix was pissed off at him, so he had to stay as far away from the club as possible.
A part of me was torn that he wasn’t doing anything after he had arrested Soren, but I was also grateful that at least Soren had someone inside who would keep an eye on him until we figured this whole mess out.
Several employees at the club had confirmed they’d seen Soren visit the locker rooms during his break.
He always did that, and while that ended up looking bad on Soren’s part, as if he always used his break to deal drugs, I knew this wasn’t the case.
In fact, it meant everyone knew his routine and could have used that against him.
We usually texted each other when he was free, but last night he hadn’t. That piece of the puzzle was solved when Dean revealed that he and Soren had talked during his break, and he had the text messages to prove it, although they hardly explained away the drugs.
The most frustrating part was that no one knew anything, and for some reason, the surveillance camera feed from that area had been blank.
We couldn’t even rely on the footage to prove Soren’s innocence, but it also meant that there was reasonable suspicion that someone had framed Soren.
It was too much of a coincidence for the video feed to be unavailable.
Given it was too late for me to visit Soren, I ended up spending the rest of the time at Halo House, unable to return home and face a house—a bed—without Soren in it.
Early the next morning, Vale showed up, looking grim.
We all met in the kitchen, Shannon making everyone coffee, which might not have been a good idea given how wound up everyone else was.
Phoenix was still steaming mad at Vale and wouldn’t even acknowledge the other man.
Vale looked ready to cry at Phoenix’s dismissal, but I didn’t have the time to pander to their problem when they wouldn’t even confess how they felt about each other.
“How is he doing in there, Vale?” I asked, accepting the cup of coffee from Shannon with a grateful nod.
“Frightened,” Vale answered honestly, which I was thankful for.
I would have hated it if he had lied to me to make me feel better.
“He’s aware the charges against him are serious and will attract a stiff penalty.
We’ve been cracking down on drug distribution this quarter, and I’m afraid anyone caught up in this mess will face the stiffer side of the penalty. ”
“You could have warned us,” Phoenix mumbled.
“I had to do my job, Phoenix,” Vale replied, his tone begging to be understood.
“I wasn’t even supposed to be there last night, but I convinced Cook that he would get better cooperation if I were with him.
I did everything I could to ensure Soren was comfortable.
If it’s any consolation, he’s being treated like royalty in there—well, as royally as you can treat someone in jail.
He’s not even sharing a cell with anyone. ”
“At least that’s something,” I said, scrubbing a hand over my stubbly cheeks. “I don’t blame you for doing your job, Vale. I just need to know what we should do.”
“Did you speak to your lawyer?”
“Yes, and he’ll be at the station as soon as we’re permitted.”
“You know you won’t be able to see him,” Vale said.
“I don’t care. As long as I’m close.”
“Someone in that nightclub planted those drugs in Soren’s locker,” Vale said. “It has to be an inside job. Does anyone know who would want to target Soren? Has he offended anyone? Did he have any altercation with anyone last night or any other night?”
“No, Soren has been a wonderful server in the VIP lounge,” Phoenix said.
“Did he by chance turn someone down?”
“He never mentioned it.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, my pulse throbbing at the idea forming in my head. “Soren talks to me about his nights at the club, and the only thing that pops into mind is the first night he worked there. Didn’t he have an altercation with one of the boys?”
Phoenix gasped. “Evan. Is it Evan? He’s been at the club every night this week, but how would he have pulled this off?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” I said.
“Wait, we can’t accuse him without proof,” Vale said. “We have to be very careful with this.”
“And what do you suggest?” Phoenix snapped. “Because you haven’t been a lot of help in this. What was the sense of bringing him here to Halo House if you were just going to throw him under the bus the first chance you got?”
Silence filled the room at Phoenix’s outburst. A pained expression crossed Vale’s face, and he looked like he was about to be sick. Without a word, Phoenix stomped out of the room, and Shannon went after him.
“You know he doesn’t mean it, Vale,” I said.
“Yeah, well, I think he’s made it very clear the way he sees me,” the cop said hoarsely. “I’m off today, so I’ll look into this possible lead with Dean.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Of course.” He headed for the exit, his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Vale,” I called to him, and he turned around.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for looking after him. I know you’ll do everything you can to prove his innocence, and I appreciate that.”
“Of course. Soren’s a friend.”
When he left, I sagged against the backrest of the chair and stared into the murky black coffee that I hadn’t taken a sip of yet. The hardest part of this whole thing was waiting for the system to be up and running so we could make a move.
Hang in there, little prince. We’re doing everything to get you out.
Shannon returned a few minutes later, worried. “You should talk to him,” she said softly. “He’s taking this very hard.”
“Of course.”
Phoenix treated every single one of these boys as his own.
Once, four years ago, Halo House had closed for almost a year because one of the Daddies Phoenix had introduced to a boy had ended up abusing him so badly that the boy killed himself.
Phoenix had taken it personally, focusing on the one failure instead of all the successes he’d had.
It had taken him a long time, with the help of therapy, for him to let go of the blame and focus on the number of abandoned people in the community he’d helped.
I took the stairs up to the third floor, which was Phoenix’s quarters, and no one else was permitted up there unless invited.
It was the place where he was able to put down the label of Guardian Angel of Halo House and be human after giving so much of himself to others.
I found him in the expansive sitting room, standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows with a glass in his hand.
“Isn’t it too early for a drink?” I asked, coming to a stop a few feet behind him.
“It’s happy hour somewhere.”
I sighed, slipping my hands into my pockets. “Why are you being so hard on Vale? You know he’s just doing his job and that this would have been much worse for Soren if he hadn’t gotten involved. He’s not the bad guy here, Phoenix.”
“Isn’t he?” He turned around to face me. “We talk every single day. Do you know that I wake up every morning with a text from him? And when it matters, he fails to reach out to me, knowing this concerns Halo House and me?”
“So you expected him to tip you off that they were going to raid Soren’s locker? You know that’s not the kind of cop Vale is. He’s a decent man.”
“Well, maybe that’s the problem.” Phoenix gulped down the rest of his drink.
“This just reminded me that we are different. I can’t be with a man who follows the law so rigidly, Jude.
I just can’t. Do you know what kind of life some of these boys who end up here have lived?
So what if Soren had drugs in his locker?
Not that I believe they are his, but even so, why does he need to be locked up for it instead of being given the chance to be better?
These angels have learned to do what they must to survive.
They don’t deserve to go to prison for that. ”
“So that’s what’s been bothering you?”
“Don’t you see that it’d never work between us? Our work puts us at odds with each other.”
“Did you want to give it a shot?”
“Maybe. I’ve been thinking about it lately, having hope again, but now I know better.” He turned around and inhaled deeply. “Enough about Aaron. What’s the plan? We have to get Soren out even if it means breaking him out of jail. I have a connection you don’t know about, Jude.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, I chuckled. “You’re not breaking him out of jail. We’re going to prove his innocence and get him out the right way. And then I’m going to lock his ass up at home so no one has the chance to frame him again.”
Phoenix nodded. “Yes, I very much support that.”
By ten that morning, I was seated beside my attorney in the lobby of the Headland Bay Police Department, bouncing one knee so hard that it shook the row of plastic chairs.
The station looked exactly the way I remembered police stations looking: dull tile floors, pale walls, and the constant opening and closing of doors. Officers moved in and out carrying folders, coffee cups, and evidence bags while civilians waited beneath signs explaining procedures.
The familiarity made my stomach turn. I had spent years trying not to remember the day I had been brought into a place like this. The confusion. The humiliation. The certainty that someone would realize there had been a mistake and let me go.
The hours had passed.
Then the days.